I generally lead rides on Sundays, and I'll go out as long as the precipitation holds off, and conditions are such that I won't expect ice on the roads. I like my rides to come in with an average between 14.5-15.5mph (for my club, the Princeton Free Wheelers, that's the high end of the C+ range or the low end of the B range).
Last year, many of my cold-weather rides ran faster than that range, and I've heard that some club members have decided not to come on my rides when they see the faster folks who sign up; these club members are afraid they'll be dropped. After last week's ride (which was fast, but that was, I think, partly due to the inclement weather), I decided to take a while to think about what I wanted to do about the rides I lead. I suspect the faster riders come out on my rides because there aren't a lot of rides at faster paces scheduled for the club at this time of year... but the sensible answer to that is, I think, for some of these faster riders to lead rides at the paces at which they want to ride, not for me to have my ride run away with by faster folks, or to have club members who should be able to come on my rides, intimidated by the others who register.
I haven't got an answer yet, and, while I'm thinking of how to manage this, I decided to take a week off from leading. Laura OLPH, seeing the absence of my listing (and wanting to lead a ride this weekend, which she could not do yesterday), listed a ride for today... and I registered.
Nine of us went out. Laura had picked a route to Sergeantsville on some roads I didn't know (and others that were familiar). The ride was hilly, and with the roads wet to start (there was rain when I left my house, although it had stopped 90 minutes later when the ride started), I was cautious on the downhills (and I'm not a courageous descender at the best of times).
It was good to get out with club members, many of whom I knew, although I wasn't chatty (there may be another blog post about some internal wranglings). Laura had added an unusual warning about ride pace to her usual pre-ride speech; perhaps this was why we mostly rode behind her until the stop (Laura thought it was so that people could draft her in the headwind; perhaps she's right - but the first half of the ride was a mile-per-hour slower than the average at which I finished).
We stopped at the bagel place in Sergenatsville.
I think it's a better stop than the general store, which has just gotten too odd.
We returned through Mount Airy, and stopped to say hello to the cows.
Len said that that cow in the middle of the picture had her eye on me. I said I think I dated her, and Laura asked which one of us broke up first. (Note: In general, except for TEW, it's safe to presume that the girl in question broke up with me. They generally had more sense, and a better idea of what they wanted, than I did.)
So home, and laundry and chores now, and back to the week. I still don't know what I plan to do about listing rides through the colder weather. I'm glad I did this ride today, though.
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